Hi all.
It was 1985, my family had a VIC-20, and I was obsessed with Gauntlet. Having spent a lot of time trying to program, I tried to make Gauntlet for the VIC-20 - in BASIC. Sadly, this was an unexpanded VIC, and the BASIC version I came up with was just to bulky to fit in to memory. It featured a black screen with walls, a hero, doors and keys, and I believe I tried making some ghosts move as well as the ability to actually fire a shot. I remember the doors working.
Sometime later, we upgraded to a C64, and I rejoiced at the massive 64K that it had. I did make some cheap BASIC games, and later a silly ML game, but VIC-20 Gauntlet never was finished. This has been one thing I always had in the back of my head as something I have *yet* to accomplish.
Years later, in 1999, a friend of mine sent me a VIC with the condition that I finish Gauntlet. I decided that I should, and as I had learned ML since, I went in to coding it properly. I found the old cassette tapes that had my old BASIC version, and copied out the graphics that I made. Eventually, I got distracted and stopped working on it.
In 2001, me and that friend made plans to attend the Vintage Computer Festival outside Boston. He pressured me in to working on VIC Gauntlet once again. So, prior to, and while there, I worked more on it, but didn't finish. I believe I was working on a map maker program as well.
I tried getting back to it in 2002, but again stopped. Now, with some pressure from people posting interest in seeing this done, I feel it is a calling. I really want this to happen, so I've been looking over the code again. I've updated my site which you can find in the link in my signature.
This thread is coming from one that I started a few days ago in the General section where I was asked about VIC Gauntlet. I'll post any updates here.
Any encouragement is appreciated, and any complaints that I've not done this in X amount of years might inspire me more too.
VIC-20 Gauntlet
Moderator: Moderators
VIC-20 Gauntlet
Some day I will finish it:
Gauntlet for the Vic-20 (unexpanded)
http://c64.exitof99.com
Amiga freaks, play 99¢ Kombat:
http://99centspecial.com/99downs.htm
Gauntlet for the Vic-20 (unexpanded)
http://c64.exitof99.com
Amiga freaks, play 99¢ Kombat:
http://99centspecial.com/99downs.htm
Re: VIC-20 Gauntlet
I'm guilty of having many a project fall by the wayside so I'll not be casting the first stone (sorry about cramming two Biblical references into one sentence). It's all encouragement from me. I quite like Gauntlet and I'm looking forward to it. For inspiration you might want to read this thread. It's never too late.Exit wrote:Any encouragement is appreciated, and any complaints that I've not done this in X amount of years might inspire me more too.
In the end it will be as if nothing ever happened.
Wow this has great potential to even attempt this in 4k maybe you should do it in 24k as most of us now have extra ram at least it will give you more memory to play with when you get back to the project
simply brilliant
what next ghosts and goblins
I think Bruce Lee would be a good conversion for the vic20
simply brilliant
what next ghosts and goblins
I think Bruce Lee would be a good conversion for the vic20
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orion70
- VICtalian
- Posts: 4341
- Joined: Thu Feb 02, 2006 4:45 am
- Location: Piacenza, Italy
- Occupation: Biologist
This is the first sentence in your site - and the very spirit of our forum, too. Despite this, I'd consider the opportunity to fit the game into 16K - you'd be more free to implement features and / or game options.The magic of programming within the confines of 4k is that even with 4k there is a near infinite amount of ways it can be used.
- Steve Baldwin
Yeah, the BASIC version needs 3k extra, otherwise it will fail. It really isn't much to look at, it's really slow. It really is the version I made as a kid in 1986 updated a bit in 2002. The previous post demonstrates the real deal in ML, and now that I've got the source code again, I can get to work on it again - after I work for my clients first that is.
I don't know if there would be any benefit yet from a 24k version, the map can be stored economically in 128 bytes or 256 bytes, and the map items will be stored with two bytes each, and the monsters using 3 bytes each. 1024 bytes could store 341 monsters, which alone would require a lot of processing per game loop.
What I could see being a benefit would be unpacking the monster data into more bytes. Presently, the plan is to store in the first byte the X-position and the monster type. The second byte stores Y-position and health. The third byte stores the hero that is targeted as well as the monster status used only by demons, lobbers, and sorcerers. Rather than needing bit operations for each monster, it could be handled as with a byte for each data type (X-Pos, Y-Pos, Monster Type, Health, Target, and Status) This would double the memory consumption with 6 bytes per monster, but would make processing less.
The real moment of truth will come when I test it out with a number of monsters on the map active.
I don't know if there would be any benefit yet from a 24k version, the map can be stored economically in 128 bytes or 256 bytes, and the map items will be stored with two bytes each, and the monsters using 3 bytes each. 1024 bytes could store 341 monsters, which alone would require a lot of processing per game loop.
What I could see being a benefit would be unpacking the monster data into more bytes. Presently, the plan is to store in the first byte the X-position and the monster type. The second byte stores Y-position and health. The third byte stores the hero that is targeted as well as the monster status used only by demons, lobbers, and sorcerers. Rather than needing bit operations for each monster, it could be handled as with a byte for each data type (X-Pos, Y-Pos, Monster Type, Health, Target, and Status) This would double the memory consumption with 6 bytes per monster, but would make processing less.
The real moment of truth will come when I test it out with a number of monsters on the map active.
Some day I will finish it:
Gauntlet for the Vic-20 (unexpanded)
http://c64.exitof99.com
Amiga freaks, play 99¢ Kombat:
http://99centspecial.com/99downs.htm
Gauntlet for the Vic-20 (unexpanded)
http://c64.exitof99.com
Amiga freaks, play 99¢ Kombat:
http://99centspecial.com/99downs.htm
Some days ago I was poking around internet and I found your website: I got stunned by your "crazy" idea!! I couldn't believe that the project could be real, but looking those screenshots my heart stopped: this is what I call a real "blockbuster" for my beloved vic... go on Exit, all my apologies!!!
No one should tolerate death and violence because tolerance will generate habit.
Re: VIC-20 Gauntlet
I remember bookmarking your VIC-20 Gauntlet site a few years back. Every 2-3 months or so I'd go visit the site but there weren't any updates. I thought that this was the most legendary form of vaporware ever. I was trying to imagine what Gauntlet on the VIC-20 would look like.Exit wrote:Any encouragement is appreciated, and any complaints that I've not done this in X amount of years might inspire me more too.
Don't feel too badly about this project that is 23+ years in the making now. I've resurrected some Commodore projects that were 10+ years old.
I look forward to downloading your game-in-progress later today.
I must admit, I haven't used my VIC-20 in some time ever since I got an MMC Replay for the C64--something about putting thousands of games on an SD card is me being a kid in a candy store.
I use my C64 to play games, but I feel more at ease about using the VIC-20 to create games. Every time I have an idea for a game, it was already done on the C64. With the VIC-20, it mostly likely hasn't. That is why I programmed Pitfall and an Ultima clone (Realms of Quest II) because such games have never been made for that computer.
So a VIC-20 version of Gauntlet would be an amazing accomplishment for certain.
"A slave is one who waits for someone to come and free him." -- Ezra Pound
